Monday Morning Poll: Does a Hollywood Strike Concern You?

Or, do you look at it the same way you do a sports strike -- that these friggin' people make so much money as it is, why on earth should they be striking? Lets' backtrack first, because I want to explain this strike to those who keep hearing about it, but don't really know what the hell anyone is talking about. Who's striking? Why are they striking? When are they striking? And what does their striking have to do with me and my electric bill? Okay, here's how it's playing out: The WGA (Writer's Guild of America) contract with the studios is up in October, but they're going to delay negotiations for a bit so as to catch up with the DGA (Director's Guild of America) and SAG (Screen Actors Guild), whose contracts end in June of 2008. The current notion around Hollywood is that all three of these guilds could team up in June, go on strike and literally cripple the entire industry (look at it as the equivalent to getting punched in the nuts ... hard).

"Why would they have a reason to strike in the first place?" Easy ... money. Why else? Essentially, all parties are looking for better residuals on "new media entertainment" -- internet, stuff like that. So, in the meantime, studios are stockpiling scripts and rushing productions in order to have a slate lined up so that if there is a strike, they still have a product to put out. But like with any rush job in any field, I wouldn't expect that product to be any good. Devin from CHUD makes a good point when he says that no matter what happens, studios are still going to be left with all these films they rushed to complete -- which means, no matter what, we're still going to be exposed to the crappy "pre-strike" movies because studios will have no other choice but to dump them on us since, well, they're already completed. Which kinda sucks. As Devin points out (as well as the LA Times), the same thing happened in 2001, and that's the same year we got Men in Black II, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Reign of Fire and Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes. Nice. But if the strike doesn't happen, it also means actors and directors will have open schedules and be available to take on smaller projects over the summer. So, there's a chance we may get some good movies out of this after all. Who knows ...

So, I ask you: Are you concerned about this strike now that you know what it's about? Do you think the guilds have a reason to strike in the first place? And if you're in one of these guilds, feel free to add your two cents to the conversation?